Psychiatric Complications of Heart Transplants

As the psychiatric consultant to a cardiac transplant team, this author faced a unique challenge. He discusses the factors involved in the psychiatric screening of potential candidates for the operation and describes the preoperative and postoperative psychiatric complications observed among nine patients who have received heart transplants at his medical center. As surgery progresses in the direction of organ replacement, he concludes, psychiatrists must prepare to meet the increasing need for their services in this area.